CNN wanted to find a fun and humorous way to inspire voters to tune into the 2020 election season’s tentpole events, while also acknowledging the reality of our political polarization in the US. It wasn’t long before the CNN Donkey and Elephant were born.

Working with our friends at HouseSpecial, we used stop motion animation to take the political cartoon from the pages of our periodicals and bring it into the 3D space. The characters were developed based on personality profiles we made of each animal, which informed everything from their character design to their expression ranges, movements, clothing, and behavior . Each maquette was then hand cross-hatched and placed in an environment comprised of both 2D illustrations and 2.5D atmospheric elements, creating a totally new visual style.

These four spots ran constantly in the months leading up to the election, offering a welcome moment of levity in an otherwise tense campaign season.